Saturday, April 9, 2016

Lebanese authorities accuse Australian TV Network of payining for child abduction in Beirut

Australian Network, 'Channel Nine's 60 Minutes paid
$115,000 for the abduction of two children off the street in Beirut' - Lebanese authorities

Authorities say they have evidence Channel Nine paid for the abduction

Say they have a signed statement from a member of the 'recovery team'

Nine reportedly paid $115,000 for the operation, but this is unconfirmed

CCTV footage shows two children being snatched off the street in Beirut

The mother, Sally Faulkner, has been arrested in Lebanon after the incident

Continue after the cut ....

Australian journalist Tara Brown and her crew also detained in Lebanon ...Brown, producer Stephen Rice and sound operator are being held

They were filming a story about the recovery of two Australian children

The children's father, Ali el-Amien, slammed the alleged kidnapping, said it endangered the lives of Noah, 4, and Lahela, 5

Lebanese
authorities reportedly have evidence that Channel Nine paid for the
abduction of two children, who were snatched off the street in Beirut in
a botched child recovery operation.

The
authorities say they have a signed statement from a member of the
'recovery team' who says Channel Nine paid $115,000 for the operation,
reported the ABC.

However, the evidence and signed statement is unconfirmed.

The
children's mother, Australian woman Sally Faulkner, was arrested by
Lebanese police for allegedly kidnapping her two children along with a
Nine Network TV crew, who are all behind bars.

The
children's father, Ali el-Amien said he was 'disappointed' by the
recovery attempt, but has reiterated he won't be pushing for charges
against Ms Faulkner.

'I told her that I'm not going to file anything. She is the mother of my children,' Mr el Amien told The Guardian.

'I saw her and I was thinking, 'Oh what did you do? What were you thinking'?

'I wasn't angry. I was disappointed. You could have just showed up and said you wanted to see the kids. She knows that.'

Mr el-Amien also said he had access to his ex-wife's emails and knew that a recovery operation was being planned.

It is unknown what charges Ms Faulkner may face from Lebanese authorities.

The
ABC reported that the area where the two children were grabbed is
monitored by Hezbollah and Amal, two powerful Lebanese political and
militia organisations.

Mr el-Amien's father's family is al reportedly politically connected.

Sally Faulkner, from Brisbane, hired a
controversial child recovery agency to snatch her children - Lahlea, 5,
and Noah, 2 - back from their father

Ms Faulkner said she agreed for her
ex-husband Ali el-Amien to take the children to Lebanon for a holiday
last year but a day after they left he told her that Noah and Lahlea
would not be returning

The mother has previously said she did not know about her ex-husband's intention to take her children

The children have both since been reunited with their father, who says he is 'disappointed' by the recovery attempt

Ms Faulkner was arrested in Lebanon along with members of a 60 Minutes crew after attempting to kidnap her children

Footage release by Channel Nine after
journalist Tara Brown and her crew were detained in Lebanon while
filming a story about the recovery shows a scuffle break out in a busy
street of Lebanon's capital, Beirut

Mr
el-Amien has previously told media he believes the recovery attempt put
the children's safety in jeopardy, with security camera footage
appearing to show them being bundled into a car by several people in
southern Beirut.

The
two children were snatched by a child recovery team while they were
waiting with their grandmother at a bus stop, according to local police
and media outlets.

Ms
Faulkner claims her ex-husband took their children to Beirut on a
holiday and then refused to bring them back home to Australia.

A
Channel Nine 60 Minutes TV crew, including senior journalist Tara Brown,
a producer and a cameraman, is also being detained over its alleged
role in the kidnapping.

Ali el-Amien told the ABC the alleged kidnapping was reckless and dangerous move.

'What
if someone armed passed by and saw the scene and started to fire? We
are in Lebanon here. If they started to shoot, they could have hit one
of the children. They could have shot my mother,' he said.

Once Lahela and Noah went to Beirut, Mr el-Amien told Ms Faulkner she would never see her children again

Before the controversial snatch and grab operation, Ms Faulkner hadn't seen her children for more than ten months

'I want to come back,' Lahela could be heard saying as she sobbed to her mother

Ms Faulkner said Lahela feels isolated
and she now lives with family members like her grandmother who only
speaks Arabic, and no English

He
said the family, including Ms Faulkner, had lived in the country until
2013, when she decide it was no longer safe and left for Australia.

'When
all the bombings took place, she wanted to go and visit her parents.
She arrived there and tore up the children's passports.'

He claimed she told him when he wanted to see the children, to come to Australia.

Despite trying to live in Australia, neither had work there, and their income came from Lebanon, he told the ABC.

Australian consular officials visited the four Australians, who are in good health, in prison on Thursday night.

Nine Network said on Friday they had also been visited by a lawyer.

'They
are being held in a police station in Beirut and been visited by DFAT
officers and are in good health,' a spokeswoman told AAP.

Nine
Network director of communications and public relations Victoria Buchan
told Daily Mail Australia while the crew were being detained they
hadn't been arrested.

Nine was working with the Australian consulate to get them out of prison.

Ms Faulkner told A Current Affair last year that she would do 'anything' to get her children back

It is understood by Daily Mail
Australia some of the same crew members with Brown (pictured) were set
upon by thugs while reporting on the European refugee crisis with fellow
reporter Liz Hayes in Sweden last month

Brown
and her crew had travelled to Lebanon to cover Ms Faulkner's attempts to
bring back her children - Lahela, 5, and Noah, 4 - using a
controversial international child recovery agency.

Dramatic
security camera footage broadcast on Lebanese TV and on the Nine
Network appear to show the children being bundled into a car by several
people on a busy street in southern Beirut.

Two
women, believed to be Noah and Lahlea's grandmother and nanny, can be
seen standing in the street with two small children when a
commotion ensues.

A flurry of people jump out of a large parked car and approach the children.

They pick them up and shove bystanders out of the way as they rush back to the car to stuff them in the back seat.

The person left behind on the street makes an attempt to chase after the car.

In Skype call, both Ms Faulkner's children can be heard begging to be returned to their mother's side

Her brother Noah said he wanted to return to Australia but that his father had dodged his pleas

The children's grandmother claims she was hit on the head with a pistol.

'It's
their mum that kidnapped them, and that's what we know. She contacted
me and told me she has the kids,' their father, Ali Zeid al-Amien, said
soon after the incident.

Later, the children were returned to their father.

A
British citizen from the child recovery agency involved has been
detained on suspicion he planned to smuggle the children out of Lebanon
on a boat, according to police.

Officers also seized an expensive boat they believe was intended for the job.

Lebanon,
unlike Australia, is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on the
Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction which allows for children
normally resident in one location to be returned if taken by a
relative.

Footage has been release of the moment the child recovery agency tried to retrieve the children from their father in Lebanon.

'Lahela is not coming back, Sally. She's staying here with me. Alright? Lehla and Noah,' Mr el-Amien said on a Skype call

The separation was amicable and Ms Faulkner said she trusted her ex-husband before he left with the kids

Before
the children were returned to their father they were allegedly pursued
by local police who put a border alert out for the mother and both
children in an attempt to stop them leaving the country, according to
the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ms
Faulkner said she did not know about her ex-husband's intention to take
her children and agreed for them to travel to his native Lebanon for a
holiday.

A
day after Lahela, then five years old and two-year-old Noah went to
Beirut , Mr-el Amien allegedly told Ms Faulkner she would never see her
children again.

'This
is what's going to happen. Lahela is not coming back, Sally. She's
staying here with me,' Mr el-Amien said on a Skype call.

'Alright? Lahela and Noah,' he added.

In
another Skype call obtained by Channel Nine, both Ms Faulkner's
children can be heard begging to be returned to their mother's side.

'I want to come back,' Lahela sobbed to her mother.

In a tearful interview last October, Ms Faulkner told Daily Mail Australia 'It's literally like a living hell'

Both
children were born in Australia and Ms Faulkner let them travel to
Lebanon with their father because she had no reason to suspect they
would not come back from the holiday

Ms Faulkner said that while her
relationship ended on bad terms, she had never tried to keep the
children from their father and had no idea why he would do that to her

Her brother Noah also said he wanted to return to Australia but that his father had dodged his pleas.

'I want to come back. Daddy won't bring me back,' the young boy said.

'He just away says 'I'll see' but I really miss you. I don't want you to get sad,' he added.

Ms Faulkner said Lahela feels isolated now that she lives with family members who don't speak English.

'Everyday
I talk to [Lahela] I hear such sadness and she tells me that's she's
lonely because her grandma speaks Arabic... She hasn't learnt it, he
didn't teach them that,' she told A Current Affair.

She
said that while her marriage ended on bad terms, she had never tried to
keep the children from their father and had no idea why he would do
that to her.

Ms Faulkner told A Current Affair she would do 'anything' to get her children back.

In a tearful interview last October, Ms Faulkner told Daily Mail Australia: 'It's literally like a living hell'.

Ms Faulkner said she called and emailed Mr el-Amien daily and had attempted to take legal action.

As
her money and resources dwindled, Ms Faulkner asked for the Australian
government to step in and also she petitioned for Minister of Foreign
Affairs Julie Bishop to help bring her children home.

But
when the government 'did nothing' to help her, Ms Faulkner is believed
to have contacted 60 Minutes who offered to pay for the recovery
operation in return for filming it as a story.